Black caucuses have equal right to organize

Saturday

Dec 22, 2007 at 12:01 AM

Editor, the Record:

Editor, the Record:

The Dec. 13 letter in which the writer attempted to humorously, or more accurately, humorlessly, contact the 'White Caucus,' dismayed me. He concluded that it's OK to have a black caucus, but to have a white caucus would be racist. Ironically, he's correct.

Many people have no understanding of the term 'racism' or the reasons a minority group has to caucus, to discuss issues that pertain to them. A caucus is a group with shared interests. A black caucus, or women's caucus, etc., meet to share concerns specific to their group. What might a white caucus meet about? Being the majority, us white folks range from the very conservative, to the very liberal, from pro-gun to anti-gun, from unionist to libertarian, etc. If whiteness is all we have in common, would we be meeting simply to promote the white race? If so, then we would be racists, no different from the KKK. Whites are a large, diverse group. And although African-Americans also hold an array of political and social ideologies, they share the experience of oppression in our country, which is called racism.

Racism does not simply refer to anything about race. Racism is the assumed superiority of one race over another. As more groups strive to obtain their piece of the American Dream, it is sad that others feel threatened by that.

I propose that when a minority group gets a piece of the pie, no one will be without their slice. In America we have, or ought to have, enough pie to go around.

So to the letter writer or others who feel the need to belittle a black caucus, I would say: Take a deep breath. Relax. When trying to right historic inequities, every group that has faced discrimination, lack of opportunity, and sometimes much worse, deserves the opportunity to get together without the judging eyes of others, to discuss, form their agenda, and present their concerns.